Gene Upshaw was Right! And Bernie Parrish Agrees!
OK, OK – before everyone gets their underwear in knots, it’s actually only one thing they “agree” on. But before we get into that, a little background: Over the years, the late Gene Upshaw was adamant about the fact that he didn’t work for the retired players. (Read about it HERE.) Yet, the NFLPA receives at least 60% of gross revenues from the NFL and its owners and a portion of that goes to the retired players for disability and pension benefits that they help to manage and distribute as minimally as possible.
Bernie Parrish reads everything he can get his hands on (eventually). That’s how the whole NFLPA/Players Inc. lawsuit finally got off the ground and was won last November – Bernie never says anything without backup. For months, he’s been telling me that the retired players had no representation or vote in their own Union. So it wasn’t any surprise when Bernie called this morning to point out an interesting, two-line footnote buried in the 2007 LM-2 that the NFLPA filed with the government last year (we’re anxiously awaiting the 2008 LM-2 that should be available some time this month). This is at the bottom of Page 79 of the 2007 NFLPA LM-2 (click to enlarge):
You can also look at the entire section using Scribd – just scroll down to the last page of this section (page 79) to see the reference to Section 13:
If this has always been the case, it brings up a whole new set of questions and issues that will certainly need to be addressed at the upcoming Summit in Las Vegas at the end of this month. If the NFLPA actually has to declare that retired players are not represented and have no vote, then why are they collecting and managing the retired players’ benefits? And why have the retired players never formed their own independent organization to collect, manage and distribute their own benefits? And does this also mean that the retired players should be getting back all the money the NFLPA has spent mismanaging their benefit funds? It also means that the lame excuse about having to wait until the CBA was renogotiated has been a boldfaced lie.
So to get back to Gene Upshaw being right: Yes, he apparently DIDN’T work for the retired players and yes, they aren’t even allowed to have a vote. But it can now also be argued it worked the other way as well. Upshaw and the NFLPA should never have been allowed to receive and manage the retired players disability and pension benefits. So to paraphrase that TV commercial, “We want our money and we want it NOW!”
Dave Pear
May 20th, 2009 at 1:56 PM #
Addendum to Andre Collins,
On 3/27/09 you called me at home in Washington State and said, “Smith can’t do anything until after the collective bargaining negotiations to increase disability/pensions benefits” (according to my notes and e-mail I sent 3/28/09).
According to the LM-2 you are incorrect! Is Bernie Parrish right when he says it is illegal for the NFLPA to represent retired players?
This reminds me of Gene Upshaw standing behind a federal law for 25 years that did not exist. Gene said, “Once he took that pension, that was it: He can’t get a disability (benefit). That’s not only the retirement plan — it’s the law”. I (Micheal Leahy Magazine staff writer) ask if he’s certain of that. “Yes,” he answers. “Its not just the NFL: it’s the law”.
(The Washington Post Magazine: February 3, 2008 pg. 26, par. 5) Super Bowl Sunday
But it’s not the law, says the attorney Upshaw himself retained. Lanny Davis said, “It’s discretionary,” “which is the way it is with most corporations.”
Upshaw either did not know the law or did not care to know the law. However, Mr. Smith is an officer of the court and certainly he must know the law.
Andre, I kindly request that you refrain from making these incorrect statements. You’re supposed to be the NFLPA Director of Retired Players and we expect accurate information. It’s your job!
In conclusion, you made the statement on the phone that you played 10 years in the NFL and you could relate and sympathize with what I have been through. With all due respect, the only thing we have in common is that we both played football in the NFL. You have no idea what my family and I have been through for the last 25 years because the NFLPA Retirement Board has illegally violated ERISA Law and HIPAA. They have denied us access to our earned disability benefits. We do not want sympathy; we want our earned disability benefits that we continue to be denied.
With zeal, we will continue to petition for justice and we will stand firm.
Regards,
Dave & Heidi Pear
Bernie Parrish
May 21st, 2009 at 4:21 PM #
Bernie Parrish sent his comments in today:
(June 27, 2007 Jeff Barker, Baltimore Sun) “It’s right versus wrong, period,” Ditka told the panel. “Do the ethical thing or do the wrong thing. And they’ve (NFL owners and NFLPA) chosen to do the wrong thing.”
During the Congressional Hearings June 26, 2007, Dennis Curran, an NFL senior vice president, said the league is open to revisiting the rule that says players have a 15-year window after retirement to file certain claims.
“Fifteen years is really a joke,” said Harry Carson, who is 53. “Having been out of the league 19 years, I’m starting to feel things. The whole post-concussion thing has manifested itself over the years.”
Carson has been out of the league 21 years now and the 15-year disability window rule is still in effect, 17 retired players have died and Carson hasn’t opened his mouth about it since June 27, 2007. Neither has Dennis Curran.
The NFL has already paid NFL Alumni millions of dollars not to represent retired players in collective bargaining and not to sue any NFL entities, and the league continues to fund the NFL Alumni at the rate of $275,000 per year. The NFL always controls any entity that it pays for.
Harry Carson and Bruce Laird are both announcers for NFL teams and all NFL announcers are approved by the Commissioner. Even Howard Cosell had to be approved by then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle.
Bruce Laird and Tony Davis are looking for employment by some new retired player’s organization – any organization – where they can rub elbows with NFL management, get some salary and travel expense money; I don’t believe they give a damn about the retirement benefits and disability plan of fellow retired players.
Harry Carson is far more interested in his Fritz Pollard Foundation in which he is required to schmooze NFL management to get interviews and management jobs in the NFL for his minority clients.
Carson first told newspapers after an NFL AON/Alliance meeting that raising the retirement benefits to match baseball’s and fixing the disability plan will have to wait until the next CBA.
He may not understand CBA means “Collective Bargaining Agreement.” But his comment sounded like it was scripted by the league office.
In reality, I’ve actually NEVER agreed with Upshaw. He would say one thing to give the illusion of representing retired players, then screw us over for a $1.63-a-day increase.
The NFL Alumni attempts to raise money by claiming they have 30 chapters when they really have less than 20 operating chapters and less than 150 retired NFL player members. They also claim to have 7,100 members if you call their 800-number in Ft Lauderdale and you ask the lady who answers the phone how many members they have. I think inflating your chapter and membership numbers to get people to pay $100 – $150 to join is a little dishonest if not downright fraudulent. If they really had 7,100 members, they wouldn’t be merging with Fourth and Goal and if Fourth and Goal was already successful, Bruce Laird wouldn’t be looking for income from the NFL Alumni. Frank Krauser deserves to be in business with Laird, Carson, Davis and Jerry Kramer but the retired players don’t deserve to be saddled with any of them.
One question that needs to be answered: Does NFL Alumni Board Chairman Mr. Nystrum still work for or with AON Corporation? And will AON have anything to do with this abomination or rather this amalgamation of failing organizations?
Commissioner Madoff, through John Wooten – Harry Carson’s Fritz Pollard Foundation partner – offered me the NFL Alumni twice and I turned him down. Twice. They said they would fire everybody and move it to Washington D.C. if I would hire a mild-mannered attorney they could talk to instead of me, and I would also have to drop the lawsuit (Parrish v NFLPA Case No. 07 00943 WHA), our $28.1 million class action suit and I told them, “NO! Shove it!” – twice.
Now Carson has changed his tune to say the retired players resent the active players so much, it’s like an irretrievable marriage that has ended in a hostile divorce. Something like Upshaw’s divorce with Jimmye Lee Upshaw which ended in her death.
The owners don’t give anyone anything that might be used to take your money back from them but I think they will make a profitable business deal.
I’ve been advocating that we the retired players back the owners in any lockout or labor fight with the active players for at least the last eight months to a year. I suggested to the owners that they lock out the active players in the middle of last season; it would have made the owners at least $1.5 billion a year for the next six to ten years. It would generate more than enough to bring the retirement plan up to match baseball and basketball out of the owners chump change. Then we would all be happy except for those active players who have betrayed the retired players at every opportunity.
Bob Grant
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:13 AM #
Just in case you haven’t figured it out folks, we’re not playing. This is going to be a real fist fight but we’ll win before it’s over.
Bernie is always coming up with FACTS, FACTS, FACTS and more FACTS. And the PA and the NFL kees saying “Yeah, all he has is facts, what else does he have?” That’s how “Darth Vader” got busted in that Federal Trial up in San Francisco!
The bad guys have offered Bernie a small fortune to “sell us out” twice, fellas, and he turned them down twice. Why did he do that? I’ll tell you why! He did it because he’s a “man of honor” that’s why. He’s 72 years old, men. He’s a very successful business man in the later years of his life but he’s still out there on the front lines fighting for you and me. Did you know that he never signed a GLA with the PA but he still spent his time and money to put that trial together for the guys who will get paid eventually. I don’t care what Attorney tries to tell you different – Bernie was the lead Client in that case.
If history has taught us anything, it is that absolutely no corrupt man, organization, or government can stand forever. Sooner or later, the little folk always rebel and their revolution destroys the “Bad Guys” no matter how strong they appear. Read your history books, fellas. It’s always happened.
Dave, thank you, Brother, for holding firm on the right side of this fight. You and I have discussed how dangerous it is for ANYONE to think that they can sit down and bargain with The Devil because the Devil will always tell you just enough truth to get you to do the wrong thing.
As always, “I’m riding with Bernie, boys.”
Bob Grant
Player Advocate
Summit Organizer
A Hot Topic | Independent Retired Football Players Summit
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:57 PM #
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